Thursday, April 30, 2009

I'm not sure how much you know about Belgium.... After all Belgium is a very small and often neglected country. The reason I'm asking is actually cause I wanted to know whether you knew that Belgium has a royal family? You didn't? No worries I'll give you a quick over view of the "Royal Situation"

Since it was founded in 1831, Belgium has been a hereditary constitutional monarchy. The King, whom the Constitution places above ideological and religious considerations, political opinions and debates and economic interests, has a role as arbitrator and guardian of the unity and independence of the country. King Albert II, sixth King of the Belgians, took the oath on 9 August 1993. He is married to Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria. The King and Queen have three children: Crown Prince Philippe, Princess Astrid and Prince Laurent. Prince Philippe and his wife, Princess Mathilde, have 2 daughters, Princess Elisabeth and sons, Prince Gabriel and Prince Emmanuel and then Princess Eléonore. Princess Astrid and her husband Prince Lorenz, have five children: Prince Amedeo, Princess Maria Laura, Prince Joachim, Princess Luisa Maria and Princess Laetitia Maria. Prince Laurent and his wife, Princess Claire, have a daughter, Princess Louise, and two sons, Prince Nicolas and Prince Aymeric.

Prince Laurent is a bit of a black sheep and often is in the news over some sort of a scandal while Crown Prince Philippe and his wife are much loved.

Anyway, the whole point of this is to tell you that I had lunch with Prince Laurent today. Me, lowly Belgian that I am, hardly able to speak any of the countries 3 official languages..... Can you believe it?

Yip you read it. Pizza Hut - good enough for royaltyWe had a team lunch at the Pizza Hut across the road from my office on Tuesday and there having lunch with someone who was not his wife (i'm just saying not accusing him of anything) he was. Even stood in the next to him. And no, just like everybody else we all went about our lunch without saying anything to the man. This is not England or the States people, we find living with the famous normal.